Popol Vuh Vs Genesis

The Mesopotamian and Hebrew societies lived in two very distinct sphere of influence, as they were Polytheist and monotheist, respectably. This difference ensured that each society would operate using different methods.

The story of Popol Vuh and the book of Genesis are almost the same. These stories have so much in common you would think they were written by the same person. They also have their differences that help tell them apart. The similarities and differences suggest some things about myths around the world.

Myths and legends served as bases for cultures of old and largely reflect the civilization they derive from. An undeniably extensive part of a culture is the gods that they prayed to and feared. Nations used gods and aspects of gods to demonstrate their way of life, terrors, ambitions, and to explain the strange occurrences in life. A great example of this reflection comes from the lore of the Nordic and Greek people. The Nordic goddess Hel and the Greek god Hades serve as prime examples of what these cultures had in resemblance and in polarity. It is surprising how many characteristics these completely unrelated gods had in common and how many they didn’t. Comparing them, their territory,

There are many pieces of literature that describe the creation of the Universe. In the following paragraphs one will find that there will be two in particular we will be looking at. The first is The Iroquois Creation Story, and the second will be chapters 1-3 out of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. By the end of this essay hopefully one will be able to see most of the similarities and differences between the two works of literature.

The judeo-Christian story is very well known creation story. The Christian religion is very familiar to this story. The other story is called Iroquois creation this is a Native American story of how the Earth came to a beginning. There is many similarities and differences in this story. One of the differences is that in the Christian story the Earth was made by God. In the Iroquois story Earth was created by a woman .Both of the stories use good and evil. In the both stories there is something that is forbidden. both stories tie up by there being temptation by animals. something that is strange is that many Native American stories tie up with something to do with mother nature.in the indian story earth was created by a sea animal going deep

Question: What is the character and functions of deity in Genesis 1-2 and Enuma Elish? That is, what is God/are the gods like?

Each of the stories were developed with the same ideas in mind. Both stories start with a heavenly setting. God in heaven wanting to create the world and the rich Sky World featured in the Iroquois story. Soon the harmony is broken when women in both of the stories perform a malfeasance act. The women were to not touch a sacred tree in their world. In Genesis, that tree was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told his woman creation, Eve, to not eat from that tree, but curiosity got the better of her and she ate from the tree (New American Bible, Genesis 3.1-7). In doing so she broke the harmony of the world. In the Iroquois story, a woman dug up their sacred tree so she could eat its roots. She ended up falling through the dug up hole onto the turtles back and then started to create the Earth.

In the work of The Bhagavad-gītā and the work of Job both the main protagonists of each work, Arjuna and Job, seek guidance and wisdom from their respective gods. Arjuna seek for guidance from Krishna during the war and job from his god for why he has been suffering. Each god from the works responds to their person but each respond in a different way. In the work, Bhagavad-gītā Krishna gives Arjuna a straight forward answer. On the other hand, the god in the work Job does not. Each work shows how the relationship bet ween the gods and the humans work. In the Indian culture the gods is someone who can show the people the way but in the Hebrew culture their god test the loyalty of the humans. In both cultures from the works the people will seek their gods for guidance and wisdom but the outcomes are not the same in both places. There are similarities and differences between how the relationships between people and the gods work in the different cultures.

In this section, Coe describes the Mayan beliefs of spiritual beings, and what happens during the time in the afterlife(218). The underworld also called Xibalba translated to “place of fright” which is a place that is multi-layered with nine levels. This corresponds to the afterlife gods “ Lords of the Night” (218). Xivabva is where many Maya souls are believed to go after death, and the holiest and purest souls travel past this area to ascend to the sun and moon (similar to our the belief of heaven). Therefore during death, a person 's spirit will travel to this area, and perhaps travel beyond, little information is provided on this process. This afterlife practice and process is outlined within the Popol Vuh which describes the many gods

the greeks, chinese, norse, inuit, and Yoruban creation myths all state that their god/goddess, or gods/goddesses created humans out of some form of organic material. it is logical to think that they used something organic because organic materials were in such abundant supply, and because all primitive cultures had to use what was left laying around for any creations of their own, so it would seem logical that their gods would have to do the same. it could also stem from a rough understanding held by the ancients that we came from the base materials of the earth (carbon, nitrogen, iron etc.) and that was simply the easiest way they found to create the easiest, most universal understanding of the fact for the

In the Epic of Gilgamesh interrelationships between the humans and gods are not what we are used to in most modern monotheistic societies. Perhaps the greatest difference between the power of humans and gods is when Gilgamesh is referred to as “Two-thirds of him was divine, one-third of him was human!” (39) as this reveals Gilgamesh to be the son of Lugalbanda the former king and the goddess Ninsun. This would indicate that the line between human and god is an extremely thin one and thus gods cannot and are not that vastly different from their human counterparts. Indeed, throughout the journey of Gilgamesh we are confronted by gods and goddesses who are similar to humans in their desires and means of achieving them. This can make life difficult for humans as the gods tend to believe they are to be worshipped by all, but merely worshipping them does not give their divine aid or protection and should you scorn them you would face their wrath.

The Popul Vuh is a creation story written by the Quiche peoples of Guatemala translated by Christian missionaries. To the casual observer, one may see obvious parallels to the Jewish and Christian Books due to the influences of the conquistadors over the region, exemplifying the interaction and integration of beliefs between two extraordinarily different cultures (Norton 520). Such elements of interest included a rather more mythical version of the creation of Earth, where the thought of soil, water, and animals were brought into existence. In addition, the trials the Heart-of-Sky encountered in creating a being to worship him as well as the imagery accompanying each attempt had strengthened the mythical impression of this story of creation

Our worldview affects how we interpret the world around us as well as the literature we consume. Both ancient and modern worldviews have been heavily influenced by religions central to their cultures. One ancient culture whose worldview was strongly influenced by religion was Mesopotamia, as seen from their texts such as the Enuma Elish. Mesopotamian worldviews contrast from modern worldviews, which in turn cause our perspectives on every aspect of life to vary.

In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Greek gods and goddesses as possessing human qualities and faults. Through their actions and emotions, Homer emphasizes the detrimental effects of lust, envy, wrath, and greed in ancient Grecian society. He also never fails to remind readers of the importance of respect for holy figures because of their powerful abilities to create chaos and wonder". Homer wants to prove that gods and humans share a variety of traits, and the only difference is that god don’t allow these flaws negatively to impact their society. To help further his argument, we can compare Greek gods and goddesses to that of Christianity. These almighty figures are the world’s greatest thing because they never harm humans, they don’t desire sexual needs from mortals, and they don’t expect endless gifts and sacrifices.

Being born in a traditional Indian family I was taught about hinduism and its religious text, The Bhagavad Gita. It is said that Gita holds answers to all of life’s questions and by reading it one can attain the eternal peace and freedom from stressors. This was very interesting to me as a kid growing up in America, which is the center of diverse religions and cultures. I was introduced to not only Hinduism but to several others, like christianity, islam and judaism to name a few. Comparing and contrasting two sacred scriptures, The Bhagavad Gita and The Book of Genesis, reveals that even though these scriptures belong to different religions the theme that God created the earth and universe are the same.